“The sole owners of the land”: Empire, war, and authority in the Guajira Peninsula, 1761–1779

Abstract

This essay reverses conventional images of the colonial Atlantic world by showing how Native power and politics set the parameters within which Spanish colonial officials acted. It charts shifting alliances between the latter and Guajiro alaulayus (leaders) – who were related by blood or marriage – in the 1760s and 1770s, and between alaulayus and the captains of non-Spanish ships. It argues that conflict and competition among alaulayus determined the contours and limits of such alliances. Conflict and competition among alaulayus, in turn, was fueled by perceived violations of Guajiro law concerning property rights, principally cattle rustling, as well as by conflicts over access to key Atlantic ports. Thus Guajiro kinship, law, property relations, trade, and politics dictated the terms, extent, and success of Spanish engagement, missionary as well as martial. Spanish presence was contingent on the goodwill of one or more Guajiro alaulayus, whose power derived in part from the broader Atlantic trade networks in which they participated, and constrained Spanish imperialism. This view rejects conflict and competition among European imperial agents as the chief determinants of indigenous autonomy. Native peoples such as the Guajiros shaped the course of European empires as much as they were shaped by them.

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